Zelira Therapeutics to launch cannabis-based toothpaste

If you want to brush your teeth with marijuana-infused toothpaste, one Perth company will soon have the product for you.

Zelira Therapeutics (ASX:ZLD) announced on Tuesday it was getting in on the burgeoning market for cannabinoid-based oral care products with the formation of a new subsidiary.

“Zelira’s first oral care product will be a cannabinoid-containing proprietary toothpaste formulation,” the company told the ASX.

The formulation is developed by the founder of US natural toothpaste company SprinJene, and will be manufactured by the same New Jersey-based contract manufacturing company, Health and Natural Beauty USA Corp, that makes SprinJene’s other products.

“Our products will be available for sale in the USA by Q4 2020 and we remain focused on unlocking the benefits of cannabinoid-based applications as we expand our company’s reach into new and lucrative markets,” Zelira USA chief executive and managing director Dr Oludare Odumosu said.

It may sound outlandish but there are several other CBD-infused toothpaste brands available for e-commerce orders out there on the interwebs. (In selecting an image for this story, Stockhead even found 29 different stock photos for “cbd toothpaste” in the library of our content partner, Getty Images).

This will be Zelira’s first over-the-counter product, the company said.

Australian managing director and chief executive Dr Richard Hopkins didn’t immediately respond to an interview request.

The company is working on developing therapeutic treatments for a variety of medical conditions, including insomnia and chronic pain.

Botanix makes progress on cannabinoid antimicrobial gel

Meanwhile, Botanix Pharmaceuticals (ASX:BOT) announced on Tuesday it has completed somewhat gruesome but clinically encouraging research on another cannabinoid product, its antimicrobial gel known as BTX 1801.

A contract research organisation hired by Botanix tested the gel on human skin taken from patients who were undergoing an abdominoplasty — a “tummy tuck”.

After colonising the skin explants with methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), the “Human Skin Study” found that BTX 1801 successfully eliminated the so-called superbug within 24 hours.

MRSA is a type of staph bacteria that is difficult to treat because it resists standard antibiotics, meaning that infections can be life-threatening if they spread to vital organs.

Since staph is frequently present in nasal cavities, Botanix recently began a phase 2a study testing whether BTX 1801 applied deep within the nose of patients undergoing surgery reduces the risk of post-surgical infections.

The results of the skin study “show rapid bactericidal activity of BTX 1801 against MRSA and that the ointment completely eradicates MRSA from clinically relevant human skin explants after 24 hours,” Botanix president and executive chairman Vince Ippolito said.

“This gives us great confidence that BTX 1801 will be a valuable treatment option for the prevention of post-surgical infections.”

Amplia Therapeutics gets approval

Elsewhere in the life sciences space, Amplia Therapeutics (ASX:ATX) said it received clearance from the Alfred Hospital human research ethics committee to test its anti-cancer drug candidate AMP945 in up to 64 healthy adult volunteers as part of phase-one clinical trial.

AMP945 is a focal adhesion kinase (FAK) inhibitor that Amplia believes could be used to treat certain specific hard-to-treat cancers and fibrotic diseases, including pancreatic cancer and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).

The company reported positive pre-clinical data for the drug last year.